Rolling on the River

October 1, 2016 at 4:07 pm

The old MAVERICK tv series (one of my childhood favorites) had a great theme song with a line about Maverick “living on jacks and queens.” In the Wild Cards series, we prefer aces and jokers.

And you’ll find plenty of both in MISSISSIPPI ROLL, the latest Wild Cards mosaic novel, which we’ve just completed and delivered to our editors at Tor. This is the first book in what we’re calling our ‘American Triad’ (to be followed, in good time, by LOW CHICAGO and TEXAS HOLD’EM), and the twenty-fourth volume of the overall series… but no, it’s not necessary to have read the first twenty-three to enjoy this one.

The lineup this time out:
Stephen Leigh “In the Shadow of Tall Stacks”
John Jos. Miller “Wingless Angel”
Carrie Vaughn “A Big Break in the Small Time”
Cherie Priest “Death on the Water”
Kevin Andrew Murphy “Find the Lady”
David D. Levine “Under the Arch”

No publication date yet, but you’ll be the first to know as soon as we get the word from Tor.

HIGH STAKES was one of our darkest books, an excursion into Lovecraftian horror. MISSISSIPPI ROLL will have a much lighter tone, but plenty of fun and excitement.

I hope you will enjoy reading it as much as I did editing it.

Tags: editing, wild cards

Spiders! And Neil Gaiman!

October 1, 2016 at 3:48 pm

Not for arachnophobes)

If you’ve driven past the Jean Cocteau Cinema today, you may have noticed a giant spider crawling up the side of our building at 418 Montezuma.

That’s because tomorrow night we are premiering SIXTEEN LEGS!

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Neil Gaiman himself will be skyping in to introducer the film. And we have the Tasmanian film makers on hand as well.

Giant Tasmanian Cave Spiders and Neil Gaiman!! What more could you possibly want???

Tags: jean cocteau cinema, neil gaiman

I’m Number Four

September 29, 2016 at 1:43 pm

The fourth most powerful writer in Hollywood, that is.

Or so says The Hollywood Reporter: http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/lists/hollywoods-25-powerful-authors-2016-931979

I seem to recall dimly that I was number seven a few years ago, so I guess I am getting more powerful by the day. Soon I will rule the world.

Actually, though… I am delighted to see so many of my friends and colleagues on the list this year. They’ve got Diana Gabaldon at #14, Ernie Cline at #12, Gillian Flynn at #11, Dennis Lehane at #10, Neil Gaiman at #9, and Stephen King at #2. All writers I’ve published, worked with, hosted at the Jean Cocteau, and just been friends with, for varying lengths of time. All amazing talents, too. As are the other authors on the list, the ones I don’t know.

As to how much “power” any writer actually has, however… well, that’s another question.

Tags: television and film

An Enhanced Apple

September 29, 2016 at 11:11 am

This post has been brought to you by the Minions of Fevre River #GRRMinion

I’m reaching out to everyone to let you know about the new enhanced iBook edition of the 20th anniversary of the first publication of Game of Thrones. This luscious digital edition will host some amazing features brought to us by the fabulous folks at Apple.

It's now officially available exclusively on iBooks.

Click HERE to see the glory.

Delve deeper into the history of some of the great houses of Westeros and stay on top of the epic storylines through enhanced content, including:

• Gorgeous new covers
• Interactive character maps
• Extensive annotations
• Character journeys and timelines
• Family trees and histories
• House and sigil summaries
• Stunning illustrations

A GAME OF THRONES: ENHANCED EDITION is available exclusively on iBooks in the U.S. and Canada.

Enhanced Editions of Books 2-5 in George R. R. Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire series are available for pre-order.

We hope you love all the great features as much as we Minions do!

______

This post has been brought to you by the Minions of Fevre River #GRRMinion

Tags: apple, e-books, game of thrones

Come Visit Westworld…

September 26, 2016 at 5:18 pm

… at the Jean Cocteau Cinema.

HBO’s big new drama series WESTWORLD debuts on Sunday, October 2… but we’ll be showing it a day early at the Jean Cocteau.

That’s right. We have a special Santa Fe PREMIERE scheduled for Saturday, October 1, with three showings of the first episode. A morning showing in Spanish, an afternoon screening in English, both open to the general public on a first come, first seated basis, and a special invitation-only (sorry) VIP screening in the evening.

All showings will be completely FREE.

WESTWORLD is based on the classic 1973 film of the same name, written and directed by Michael Crichton and starring Yul Brynner, Richard Benjamin, and James Brolin. It’s a science fiction thriller in Western clothes, about a futuristic theme park where patrons can live out their six-gun fantasies, gunning down robot outlaws and frolicking with robot dance hall girls… until something goes wrong.

HBO’s version has been completely reimagined and redeveloped by Jonathan Nolan and Lisa Joy, however (hey, it’s not 1973 any more), and stars Anthony Hopkins, Ed Harris, and Evan Rachel Wood. Everything I’ve heard about it sounds terrific; I can’t wait to see it.

Here’s a taste.

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We’re planning to have some gunslingers and dance hall girls of our own on site to help with the festivities. Whether they will be robots ot not… well, you’ll need to puzzle that one out on your own. Come join the fun!

Tags: hbo, jean cocteau cinema, television and film

Another Bloody Sunday

September 25, 2016 at 5:53 pm

Ah, football Sunday…

The Giants came out looking like they were going to dominate the Redskins. Then they shot themselves in the foot. Then they shot themselves in the other foot. Then they shot themselves in the calves, the thighs… stupid penalties, fumbles, interceptions, more stupid penalties. Horrors.

The Jets missed their flight to Kansas City. I don’t know who those guys were wearing the green and white uniforms.

Life is meaningless and full of pain.

Tags: nfl

Catching Up

September 22, 2016 at 4:39 pm

I’m back from LA and the Emmy Awards, and as usual there’s a zillion things to catch up on.

The Giants and Jets both won last weekend. They both made it more exciting than it needed to be, of course, but a win is a win is a win, and I’ll take them. Life is magical and full of joy.

GAME OF THRONES also won big, as those of you who watched the Emmy telecast know. Three more wins, for writing, directing, and show. Added to the nine that we won last weekend, that’s twelve, and gave GOT the record for most Emmys ever won by a primetime scripted series. With thirty-eight, we edged past FRAZIER. Congrats to all, and especially to Dan and Dave, who have put together a truly amazing team and made some television history in the process.

(I do wish our nominated actors and actresses had brought some gold home as well, though. With two finalists in Best Supporting Actor, and three in Best Supporting Actress, we ended up dividing the vote and competing against ourselves, I fear. But the performances we got from Peter, Kit, Lena, Maisie, and Emilia speaks for themselves, trophies notwithstanding).

Jimmy Kimmel did a great job as host.

For me, a couple of personal highlights were meeting Jim Kimmel, Jimmy’s father, who is a big fan of GAMES, and getting the Emmy from Dennis Franz, an amazing actor whose work on NYPD BLUE remains some of the finest ever seen on television. Best police show ever, imnsho).

There were great parties both before and after the awards themselves… though I fear I may getting too old for such things. I turned sixty-eight on September 20th, and may have reached the age where I prefer quieter parties with comfortable chairs.

And now I’m home, and there’s more work to do. Later, folks.

Tags: emmy awards, game of thrones

Emmys, Emmys, Emmys

September 13, 2016 at 6:20 pm

GAME OF THRONES kicked ass and took names last weekend in LA, at the Creative Arts Emmys, racking up nine victories, way more than any other show.

“Dominates,” the Hollywood press is saying. Hey, cool, I will go with that.

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/creative-arts-emmys-game-thrones-927671

GAME OF THRONES took home the Emmys for casting, for makeup (non-prosthetic), for makeup (prosthetic).

Also for production design, for costuming, and for sound mixing.

And for editing, for stunt coordination, and for special visual effects (that was the fifth consecutive win for our SFX guys)

I’d say “eight is enough, and nine is even better,” but we also lost some… so instead I will just say congratulations to all our winners, and condolences to all our losers, and to all the other nominees as well. Hugo, Nebula, Oscar, or Emmy, it IS an honor just to be nominated.

With these nine wins, GAME OF THRONES has now taken home more Emmy Awards than any other drama in the entire history of television. That is a tribute to HBO, which truly has no rivals when it comes to production quality, and to David Benioff and Dan Weiss and the outrageously talented cast and crew they assembled to bring the Seven Kingdoms and their people to life. I have been thrilled to be a part of this.

And who knows? There are more Emmys Awards this weekend, so we may not be done making television history quite yet. Tune in on Sunday night to find out.

Tags: awards, emmy awards, game of thrones, hbo, television

Football Is Back

September 12, 2016 at 12:32 pm

The NFL regular season is upon us. And with it, the agony and the ecstasy.

I got a taste of both yesterday from my two teams.

The Jets ripped my guts out and stomped on them with an agonizing one-point loss to the Cincinnati Bengals in the morning game, as the Jets have a habit of doing. But in the afternoon game, the Giants made me smile and whoop and cheer with a rousing one-point win over the Dallas Cowboys.

A single point was the difference in both games. The difference between joy and despair.

Ah, we sports fans are a strange and peverse bunch. It really makes no difference whatsoever to my life whether my teams win or lose… yet somehow it makes a vast difference to my mood. And these close games are going to kill me, I swear. Even that wonderful Giants victory could easily have become a second agonizing defeat, if a certain Dallas wideout had cut right instead of left when he caught the game’s final pass from the rookie Cowboy qb.

Fwiw, the Jet defense looked formidable even in defeat, sacking Bengals qb Andy Dalton seven times. How Gang Green managed to lose the game despite that boggles belief, but after decades as a Jets fan, I am used to being boggled.

The Giants defense was not nearly as impressive… but given that last year Big Blue had the worst defense in the NFL, I still have to give them props. I had rather hoped the Giant offense would rack up hundreds of passing yards against a weak Dallas D and crush the boys, but that did not happen, alas. Still, they played well enough to win. Odell is still amazing, the rookie wideout Shepard looks like the real deal, but the real highlight of the day for me was seeing Victor Cruz catch a touchdown pass and do his salsa dance. Cruz is one of my favorite Giants of all time, a true Cinderella story, and a lot of people thought he would never make it back after his devastating injury two years ago. It was so great to see him dancing.

Ah, well. A long season awaits. More agony, more ecstasy.

P.S. I love Chris Berman, but NFL COUNTDOWN, long my favorite pregame show, is not the same without Tom Jackson. I missed Mike Ditka and Chris Carter too, but Jackson and Berman were the Huntley and Brinkley of sports.

Tags: nfl

A Salute to Immigrants

September 10, 2016 at 6:09 pm

The United States is a nation of immigrants.

The vast majority of you reading this are descended from immigrants (aside from those few who are Native American). I know I am. My paternal grandfather came over from Italy as a child. My maternal grandfather was Irish-American, a Brady whose own ancestors hailed from Oldcastle in County Meath. My paternal grandmother was half German and half Welsh. My maternal grandmother had French and English ancestry. I am a mongrel to the bone. In short, American.

Wherever they came from, and whenever they made the crossing, all of my immigrant ancestors faced hardships, poverty, and discrimination when they came here. They came looking for freedom, they came looking for a better life. And they found it, or made it… and in the process they stopped being Irish or Italian or German and became Americans.

The process is still going on today. Men and women dreaming of a better life still look to America, and cross oceans and deserts by whatever means they can to find that better life. They face hardships and discrimination as well. Not everyone welcomes them. Some talk of walls, of keeping people out, of sending them back. My ancestors faced the same sort of talk. So did yours. It’s an old old story, as old as our republic. Millard Fillmore is dead and forgotten, but the Know Nothing Party is alive and well today, under other names. They still know nothing.

But some of us remember where we came from. Some of us remember that it was the immigrants, those tired poor huddled masses, who made America great to begin with.

From September 23 to September 30, the Jean Cocteau Cinema in Santa Fe will proudly be screening five great films about immigration and the immigrant experience. A mix of old films and new films, featuring a wide range of actors of all races, colors, and ethnicities, by some of cinema’s finest writers and directors. Comedy, drama, terror; immigrants have known it all, and these movies will reflect that. Some are among my own favorite movies. Others I have yet to see.

Here are the trailers for the films we’ll be screening:

MOSCOW ON THE HUDSON
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THE LOST CITY
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AVALON
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DESIERTO
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SIN NOMBRE
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Check the Jean Cocteau website for dates and showtimes.

In addition to the films themselves, we plan to feature some appearances by the actors, directors, and some of our local political figures, talking about the movies, their own families, the issues surrounding immigration, and the like. We’ll have more details on that as the dates firm up. But I know I will be kicking things off myself on Friday, September 23.

And as a way of welcoming our newest Americans, during the entire week, admission to all shows will be FREE for anyone who can show us a green card.

(And while I cannot promise a taco truck on every corner, we do hope to have a wide variety of food trucks turning up in front of the JCC at peak times, offering all sorts of tasty treats).

Tags: films, jean cocteau cinema, politics

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